Ditto. I got the C400 because every gram matters to me: this week I am carrying the external optical drive for the first time in about 30 flights (have to reinstal from scratch for various reasons later today!).

Don't know how relevant this is to the D series, but the C400 is pretty solid - has survived at least 1 serious knock with no noticable damage.

Cooling/noise: all the hot components are on the bottom: cpu has a fan that is tolerable in an office environment, audible but bearable at home at 2am (it is noisier than my signature line system). Also at the bottom the memory (methinks, could also be VGA) gets hot on the case (see somewhere the story of the guy who damaged his family jewels with a Dell ) and also the hdd. I find it best when working at a desk to lift the back with a CD case to allow more airflow (also to the CPU fan intake). Without this cpu fan gets audible in office in summer temps (ambient > circa 25). Overall noise is OK - I can sleep in hotel rooms fine with the Dell folding: I stand it on its edge to keep the bottom cool and the fan on a slower setting.

(There is a Speedfan like utility somewhere for Dell Latitude so I could play with the fan myself: however I figure as it is not mine, and premature failure while I am on the road somewhere would cause serious inconvenience, I have avoided )

ps - have been carrying computers for about 13 years: previously Toshiba, previous to that a couple of IBM, my first was an Amstrad luggable 386. Would consider Dell (or Tosh or IBM - I do insist on a joystick mouse which I am comfortable with and avoids the need to carry a mouse) again based on current experience.

But, a few things to consider for noise
- Optical drives : is in my docking station as I have the lightest one, but otherwise makes lot of vibrations, maybe due to the docking, but I'm not using it oftern (< 1/week)

- CPU : centrino/pentium-M runs cool and not much fan needed when in battery mode

- HDD - planned to replace it anyway, so I didn't bother about the awfully noisy (seek) default one (was it an Hitachi/IBM). Anyway, buy a OEM Fujitsu and swap it, they are quieter (for me) than a 'cuda V

As far as PCs go, I've heard Dells are really quiet, but I was talking to a local the other day who told me Hewlett Packard was the better. Not recommending them, just suggesting that you compare the two.

Few other details :
* the keyboard 'clicks' well, grave, but I like it * sometimes, when battery is loading, I have electrical noise (coil whine ?)
* again, be prepared for eventuall HDD change,
* RAM and HDD are user-replaceable (read warranty still ok), and, if dell pricing is same as here, you can save lot of money/ have much more

and also, the D800 is a desktop replacement, not something you'll take on the road to work.

I made the mistake of choosing the fastest/bigger latpop as my first laptop and he finished staying 100% on my desk @work.

[offtopic]

Trip wrote:

Feldt, this is off topic, but why do you put the EU down as your location? Is it evolving into a sovereign state?

Ooh, that's scary

Well, more scary would be that Europe would be same as before world wars.

And a constitution is also usually a good thing to clarify things, the evolution of constitutions in Europe have a tendency to empower democracy more and more, for example, it introduces referendum powers to the ppl (note : not applicable to Liechstenstein).

<cynical/humor>scary ... or ist because US won't be the master of all anymore</cynical>

Trip wrote:

Good to hear, reading about the drafting of the EU constitution had bothered me a little...most people have heard of Sweden though,

And for Sweden situation : it is usefull ... I wonder how many USians* tell the difference with Switzerland (and for that matter, see this CNN map)

*(note, some (french) ppl already situated Belgium around Austria, for that matter, not typically US, but still ...)

[/offtopic]

Last edited by dago on Fri Oct 03, 2003 12:12 am, edited 1 time in total.

My friend just got the most expensive Dell laptop (designation escapes me now) as a desktop replacement. Upon powerup I was shocked at it's silence. HDD noise (both idle and seek) are extremely quiet, and there was NO other noise. Later he had it running on the coffee table and the fan kicked in, so at least it's speed controlled. It was difinitely noisey, but livable. It kicked off after awhile.

peedswitchXP is a small applet that sits in the system tray and allows dynamic switching of the frequencies of mobile Intel and mobile AMD CPUs under Windows XP. During the development of Windows XP, Microsoft decided to integrate dynamic frequency switching into the operating system itself. On a default Windows XP installation, the power schemes in the power settings of the system panel control the frequencies of the processor. On Windows 2000 and previous operating systems, it was possible to manually control the CPU frequencies with a SpeedStep applet provided by Intel, but this is not possible anymore under Windows XP. It is not very good documented what the different Windows XP power schemes do and it is impossible to fully adjust the schemes as the important settings are not accessible through the control panel.

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